Nova Scotia artist Tom Forrestall passes away [Video]

Tom Forrestall, a celebrated Nova Scotia artist remembered for pioneering the Atlantic realism tradition, died at the age of 88 on Friday.

Forrestall’s art won critical acclaim in the 1960s for inspiring a renewed interest in realist painting, and he was known as a pioneer of the Atlantic realism movement along with Mary and Christopher Pratt.

Ray Cronin, writer and art curator at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, says Forrestall was a “prolific painter,” a man who was very generous with his time and encouraging to younger artists.

“Tom was someone who was a very humble artist, but a very good one and very committed,” Cronin said of Forrestall in a Saturday interview. He first met Forrestall in 2001 when they worked together at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

Forrestall was a lifelong painter and had been making his living from his paintings since the 1960s. While this is a difficult feat for anyone in the art world, Cronin said it was especially impressive …